The Homeschool Post (Volume 4)

At long last we've arrived at the final post in our homeschooling series. And honestly, it seems rather appropriate that I'm late for the post in which I tell you how we plan our time, doesn't it?

So what follows is a run down of how our homeschooling day works. Now many of you are going to read through this and think, "Why is this crazy woman posting all these details about her life and why on earth would anyone care?"

Well…. I do it because I've gotten lots of questions about how I get things done and also because I know that there are lots of homeschoolers out there trying to find that balance between free time for exploring and structure in their days (not to mention time to brush their teeth and get dinner on the table). Our schedule won't work for everyone, in fact in years to come it may not even work the same way for us, but maybe in sharing, something of our day will help you in finding your own balance.

So….

The boys (and as a result I) wake up around 7 or 7:30. They wake up slowly…. with lots of snuggling under quilts while mama makes a big breakfast with NPR on the radio.

On Monday and Wednesday afternoons we have music lessons, which makes for days that are a little more full and frantic than others. On those days, I try to balance some of that extra busyness by getting all my cooking done in the morning. Dinner goes in the crockpot. Lunches go in lunch boxes.

After breakfast the boys get dressed, clean up their rooms, make beds, and bring their laundry baskets to the laundry room where they'll dump any dirties and pick up the clean things that need to be returned to their rooms.

"What," you may be asking, "do dinner and laundry have to do with homeschooling?" Well, for me at least, a lot. Before our new schedule, I had such a hard time keeping all the balls in their air…. learning, feeding everyone, keeping the house picked up, bathing… it was all one big jumbled mess and it seemed like if I did one thing well, say the house was clean, everything else fell by the wayside. If we had a particularly wonderful day of learning the house was a wreck and dinner was late and a little wanting. And you know what, some of that is really fine and to be expected, but when it becomes the rule rather than the exception, not so much.

So our new homeschooling plan needed to bring some order to our beautiful mess, and somehow make it possible for us to enjoy our home, and be nourished, mind and body… and you know, for mama to keep the few remaining shreds of sanity that she has.

While the boys are cleaning up their rooms and dressing, I'm folding clothes and clearing away breakfast. Sometimes I get a shower, but more often than not, I just get dressed and save the showering for later.

Around 9 the boys grab their snacks and water bottles and head to our school room. Those snacks and water bottles are key because someone is ALWAYS hungry or thirsty. This way we minimize the interruptions.

We start our days with a bell and the pledge. I find this kind of funny and a bit much really, but they've seen this sort of thing in movies and books, and they get a big kick out of the bell ringing and the solemn oath-making, so we do it. It is apparently a great honor to be the bell ringer or the flag holder, so we have to take turns. After that are prayers and at the moment we're learning a hymn each week. I've found some great bluegrass renditions that my fiddler and guitar picker are loving. For Ryder's benefit, we have a classroom calendar. Each day he gets to post the new date. Then, someone feeds the fish and just like that, our starting rituals are done.

Honestly, I would have scoffed at some of this sort of "recreating school at home" stuff, but it really does help to sort of signify that it's time to still our hearts and prepare to focus. What can I say? It's working for them, silly as it may seem.

After the official opening of our school day, we get out our folders.

Sonlight comes with 36 weeks of charted out, week by week plans of study. Each week I make copies of those for the boys. I write in their math and reading assignments, and also make spaces for charting their music and AWANA practice. As they finish something they color in the boxes. A part of me rails against all that charting and plotting, but it really does help so much. They know exactly what is going to happen, and they feel a sense of accomplishment and ownership completing those charts. And…it helps too that it's not always ME telling them what needs to be done… it's part of the plan, it's on the chart.

First up in our school day is our history/geography/Bible/social studies segment. We do this as a family (save, of course, for Daddy, who is working away in his office in our backyard). This is the really cool thing about how Sonlight is working for us. It's meant to serve a range of ages, so we can all work together rather than being sectioned off with different leveled textbooks all the time.

Here's a little example of how this plays out:

Say our Bible reading is about the tower of Babel. We'll read that section and then paste a little tower in the appropriate spot in our Book of Time (a sort of book version of a timeline). Our history reading will coincide with that time period. In this case it's about the Sumerians and the ziggurats that they built. Then for geography we find Sumer on our big map. This happens to be present day Iraq. Then we'll do some reading about Iraq's culture and people. We'll look up photos online, maybe try to listen to a news broadcast or call to prayer or something that will give us a feel for their language.

I'm really loving how the Bible/history/geography and social studies all fit together to create one big picture. And I have to say that I'm learning so much right along with my boys. I am sorry to admit that I would have been hard pressed to find Oman on an unlabled map before this school year. But now, we can all find and identify all 15 middle eastern countries, and, more importantly, we also know something about the different people groups inside those countries. This week, we're moving on to Eastern Europe!

So you can see already how this new curriculum of ours is helping to satisfy those requirements we had… particular the "family time," "faith" and the "broader world view" aspects.

All of this usually takes about an hour or, if we find some cool videos online or decide to try to build ziggurats with sugar cubes, an hour and a half.

After that we have what we call "one on one" time.

I will work for about 30 minutes or so with one of the older boys while the other plays with Ryder. Then we swap. I use this time to go over the work from the day before, introduce their math and reading lessons for the day. I listen to their AWANA verses to see how they're coming along. We take a look at their handwriting page, and we'll do their spelling work together.

Then, the older two boys get started on their assignments while I work with Ryder. Now, at four, I don't think there's really any need to do any kind of formal schooling. Four year olds learn through play and that's just as it should be. But when you are the third boy and your big brothers have books and one on one time for learning with mama, you want very badly to be big too, and you just might insist that you too have a desk and workbooks and a pencil box, maybe even a folder with charts!

So, Ryder has one on one time too. And he has a box. And a folder. With a chart. And he will tell you that his is the best because it has STICKERS – some of them are even scratch and sniff!

Right now he gets a huge kick out of doing this stuff. It makes him feel big and he's doing so well with it all. If there comes a time though when he doesn't want to do it. We'll lay off a while. He's still so little to be doing any kind of serious school work.

At this point Daddy will probably come in and he'll be inundated… "Daddy did you know that the tower of Babel might have been a ziggurat?…. Want to see me make a letter K in cursive?… want to hear me read Dick and Jane"… do you know where the Persian Gulf is Daddy? I do!… Daddy listen, Ryder can say the whole Pledge of Allegiance… Daddy, Daddy, DADDY!"

Eventually, I'll rescue him with "Alright guys, lunch is ready!" Remember, two days a week I make lunch in the mornings. The other two school days are "hot lunch days." We have real school trays and everything. The boys love hot lunch days, and mama kind of does too…. all those little compartments are great fun to fill up. On hot lunch days there might even be some terribly rare and wonderful treat like store bought cookies or single serve apple sauce. Wonders never cease.

We all have lunch together. We all pitch in to clean up, and then we sit on the couch for our chapter book read aloud. The boys might build with Legos or draw while they are listening because it's awfully hard for boys to be still.

After the reading, the boys go play. They play long and they play hard for a couple of hours. This is the part where I get to shower, put wet clothes in the dryer, return phone calls, catch up with email, or just sit and look at a magazine… because sometimes that's really very important.

Some time in the afternoon we have "Quiet Hour." This is time when the older two occupy themselves with finishing up their assignments, reading, working in their nature journals or on any of their ongoing projects.

During this time, Ryder and I hang out. We fingerpaint, play with playdough, get up a rousing game of Memory, sing songs, bake cookies. It's our time. I really love this because before our new plan, I always felt like Ryder got the raw end of the deal. I was so busy managing the ideas and projects of the other two boys that focused time to just hang out with my baby was hard to come by.

After quiet hour we go on walks, visit the library, read together, share our projects or just play.

All of that happens Monday through Thursday. On Thursday afternoon we celebrate. We might go get ice cream or go to the park, we might bust the TV out of the closet, make up some popcorn and open up a red envelope (the Brady Bunch is our new favorite show :-). Fridays we sleep in and stay in our pajamas half the day. We meet friends, play games, hang out. We have people over, we cook.

So, all in all, it's pretty busy, pretty full, but I feel like there's lots of wiggle room in there. After lunch each day and all day Friday and Saturday and some of Sunday are open to interpretation. Oddly enough this little injection of structure has left me feeling MORE free. When we finish up our morning studies I feel like the rest of the day is icing on the cake. The official school work is done, the house is picked up, the meals are planned and we're open to whatever adventures we dream up.

So there it is. Everything you ever wanted to know about how we homeschool (and probably far MORE than you ever wanted to know too)! Why do I feel a little like I've just made you sit through two hours of home movies? I do hope that there were at least a few bits in there that might spark ideas for your own family's learning adventures. Now, if there's anything else you'd like to know, questions you have or ideas to share with me, I'd love to hear them! The floor's all yours!

Thank you SOOO much for your wonderful homeschool posts!! I have been struggling with finding structure and form for our days and have been so thankful for the timing of your posts. I feel a little panicky right now at all the structure I just read about though! Thanks again for sharing!

Oh I KNOW!!! I felt SERIOUSLY panicky when the Sonlight materials arrived in the mail and I got a load of all those charts. We were not used to doing ANYTHING but Sundays on a schedule, so it took a bit of getting used to. It’s really all working so well though and as I said, it’s been just enough structure to feel strangely freeing. Good luck with your learning journey!

It is so good to get a glimpse at your structure, and to see that someone that is used to navigating homeschooling without a curriculum can find freedom and joy with adding a little scaffolding. After picking a lot of friends brains, discussion, and prayer we decided on doing Sonlight too. We’re waiting ’til next week to start, though…
Those charts have me reeling!

Yay, thank you, Stefani! I think I’ve been waiting for this posting the most, because I’m really a sticker and chart girl at heart, but I’ve completely lost my way with these little ones. What pre-reading materials did you use with the older boys? My oldest is ready, but haven’t found any little pre-reading books to hook him in much. Also, I love how as much as we sometimes resist structure, that ultimately if gives us freedom! Love that! Enjoy your studies and those sweet boys!

Hi Melanie! Thanks for the well wishes!
With the older boys I used Five in A Row as sort of base for our learning days. It’s very gentle and sweet. I also used a lot of the activities from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. And I just read to them a LOT!
As far as actual BOOKS like for THEM to own and hold and tote and around a love to shreds, we loved finding wordless books like The Frog series from Mercer Mayer and they also adored all the Harold and The Purple Crayon books and of course Dr. Seuss. Did that answer your questions at all?

Oh, I love your comments to Melanie. I loved Harold and the Purple Crayon as a kid. My oldest is four so I’m delighted that you included what you’re doing with your youngest. I just picked up Slow and Steady at Mardel last week and I’ve yet to get into it but I’m really excited that I can use it for all three of mine since they’re all at vastly different stages right now.

I really like your new plan. Especially, how you make time for your youngest. Right now, my baby still takes a nap, but soon she’ll be up during that time and I love the idea of spending it together doing some fun things. I just put together a new schedule for our days too. It’s only our second day of it, but i think it’s going to help us out in many ways. Thanks for sharing how your days are working for you all!

Thanks so much for letting us hear all the details of your day-it helps me with some ideas for my day. I have a four year old who always seems to get the raw end of the deal now-not sure how to remedy it as we have an almost two year old nursing one still needing some time in the afternoon!
I need to pray about how to accomplish this-I love your description of your time with your little person!

I love picturing you all saying the pledge together, with one holding that flag! Isn’t it funny what it means to actually be doing “school” to each home schooled kid? My kids (5 and 7) LOVE homework, and have to have it at least a few times a week, or else they don’t feel like they are doing “real school”.

I’m wondering whether you encountered any resistance or “growing pains” upon transitioning into a more scheduled lifestyle? From your posts it does seem like your boys pretty much go with the flow of your plans/ideas, so perhaps not. If so, how did you deal with it?
I feel like we are STILL working on things that really should be routine by now!

Thanks for your posts, Stephanie! I always enjoy reading about fellow homeschoolers’ days. I considered Sonlight for this year as well, but finally decided on My Father’s World, primarily because of the cost difference. It is very similar in layout and philosophy, but is about half the cost. My three guys and I are liking it, too!

Hi Hannah!
Well… yes and no. My oldest boy THRIVES on structure. He really loves having things planned out, charts to mark up and lists to follow. It comforts him to know just what’s coming and he takes great pride in completing a task. He’s very goal oriented… give him a plan and he’s a boy with a mission. I honestly was a little wary of getting anything TOO scheduled/planned because he sometimes falls into working to the chart.. no more, no less. Over the last few years we’ve both really worked at helping him to push past what’s on the page, dig deeper and think beyond. I didn’t want to make it too easy for him to “check off” learning instead of learning as a lifestyle. So far this is working great for him. We’ve got enough structure to make him happy, but enough freedom to still pursue learning in other ways.
Now as for my middle son…. he was not pleased at all with this new method at first. There were tears. First his and then mine. This boy is very creative, always thinking of the next thing he’d like to know and build and do. He does not like to be pinned down to doing things a certain way. After our first day of school (spent mostly looking at our new materials and explaining how things would work), he was totally overwhelmed by all of it. He said he was going to hate school. Well of course this really upset me because I’d put so much thought into it and really felt like this was the ticket to things running smoothly for us all. I couldn’t go through with something that made him so unhappy, but at the same time, just as my oldest needs to loosen up a bit, I felt like my middle guy needs to learn to order his world a bit. He has high hopes of being and engineer, and the boy is SO creative and SO smart that I have no doubt he could do it, but um…. I’m fairly certain that even engineers have to work with some boundaries and abide by some rules and schedules.
So we pressed on. we put our heads together and decided to give it two weeks and then go back to the drawing board if we needed to.
Fortunately after he got into the groove and saw that it wasn’t so crazy confining as he thought it would be, it’s worked out so great. He’s really enjoying our days, thank goodness. I don’t know what I would have done next.
The youngest… he’s loving it, mostly because it means he and I have special time together (and yes it DID take his brothers some time to understand the meaning of “quiet time”) and because he’s so included.
I guess that’s my long winded way of saying that yes, we had a few growing pains, but so far so good!

This really took me back to my homeschooling days with my Mom and siblings – so fun! All those charts and workbooks and “school” get me all excited. I’m a serious nerd and loved school. 🙂 Tu so much for sharing! I know I will use this as inspiration in the future with my little one! What an awesome mama you are.

Your day sounds lovely and most managable. It does seem like you have more hours in the day than we do here. Or maybe I am still finding that perfect schedule. Either way, I do so enjoy reading about your day. Thanks.

Thank you, Stefani! And I really mean that! Thank you for taking time to do that for us.
I have five kids and am in our 11th year of homeschooling. But even so, I found myself checking your site every day, several times waiting for that post!

The age range of our kids is very wide, with the oldest being in college (thanks be to God) and the others 16, 14, 8, and 6 years. We have had times of thriving and rocking along like a machine and other times of floundering. Last year was the latter. I have needed some fresh insight from someone who hasn’t been in the game for umpteen bazillion years, to help me through the slump and provide a little inspiration…YOU DID THAT…thank you!

I’m doing two Sonlight Cores, 100 with the teens and year 1 with the littles. The teens can more or less do it without me, but I’d miss our time together and I won’t know what they’re learning if I’m not involved, so I’m doing a big time juggling act!

I love your schedule…it’s awesome. Gaurd it. Protect your time. We’re a basketball family and it is a blessing, but it is VERY time consuming. If I could go back, I would be even more selective about which outside activities were allowed in. Though, basketball just fits our very tall, athletc kids…that would be a hard one to eliminate.

In looking at your schedule, I noticed that you said you do a lot of your food prep in the morning. Can you clarify when you are fitting that into the schedule? I’m very interested.

Hello, I just ran across your blog fairly recently, so I don’t think I’ve commented before. I’ve *really* enjoyed your homeschooling series. I don’t have any children yet, but my husband spent the last few years teaching in a small classical Christian school, so we’ve thought and talked quite a bit on what we would want for our children.

I especially enjoyed this post and the requirements post–your requirements dovetail so closely with what my husband and I have talked about. And it was great to read how you live your homeschool day, to see how you are translating those requirements into action. Thanks so much for this.

Thanks for the follow-up, Stefani. Your middle sounds like my eldest, the one who causes me the most homeschool-related heartburn. 🙂 We’ve done the let’s-try-for-two-weeks-and-reevaluate thing with other things before, and it’s worked well. I need to revisit that more often!

Thanks for fleshing out homeschooling! I’m glad you explained how you manage your home around your schooling – I tend to do well at one thing but not at all aspects of my life, as well, if I do not have a plan and mine are in public school.

Sounds like your days are a good blend of structure, serendipitous learning (I love the path from the Tower of Babel to the nations of the Middle East), and some free time to learn and have fun.

Thank you for all of your homeschooling posts! They’ve been encouraging and inspiring, right when I’ve needed it. We’ve done a little Sonlight, and this year we’re trying My Father’s World – Adventures. We’ve just begun this week, but so far, so good. Thanks, again, for sharing some details of your days!

SO I guess my lengthy email last week (or was it the week before?) was a bit tardy. It seems as though you guys have found a system and a curriculum that is really working for you. It sounds awesome; I am so glad you found the balance you were looking for while meeting all those criteria. Please do let me know, though, if you want any help with art. I taught for 8 years and earned two degrees from a school that stressed teaching art as it connected to other things…

I also wanted to thank you for sharing what tools you are using with Ryder – My 3 year old is rip-raring-ready-to-go with learning new stuff right now, and while I don’t want to over program him, I do want to give him something(s) to learn with. We’ve been using alphabet cards I made (http://www.whatididatschooltoday.com/?p=371) , but he’s got those down pat now and is ready to move on. I’m glad to see some tools that might help us get further up the road.

I love how you have incorporated a flexible schedule into your day. It is amazing how well children (and even us not so used to schedules mammas) do with just a little bit of flexible scheduling. Your day sounds full of fun and learning!

Stefani ~ it is so great to read through your homeschooling posts. I’m sure often we all assume that everyone else’s schedule & schooling is smooth and easier than our own. Giving eachother a peek into reality is an inspiration & a relief!
I’ve got one hsing post on my blog and working on pt. two now.

you know that i don’t homeschool, but i have found these post very interesting. heck, i feel better when i have the food prep/laundry/cleaning done at the beginning of the day, too. you have tips in there that would work for everyone. thanks for taking the time to share, stefani.

I don’t homeschool, and yet I can’t thank you enough for that post! I’ve been checking back daily in anticipation for it:-) All summer, with my oldest not in school (I have 3 boys ages 7, 4, and 18 months), I wondered how do moms like you do it, because even with no big agenda or schedule, there were never enough hours to do all we wanted from your Book of Days, never mind a curriculum!

When I read great inspiring blogs like yours, I always wonder, “When does she shower?” Or “how does she find time to clean the kitchen floor?” Thank you so much for letting us get a peek inside.

For now, see us as co-schooling with our public school. My oldest sounds a lot like your middlest. He’s my artist and just wants as much time as possible to follow his imagination and ideas.

I hope you’ll continue to fill us in as things progress and as you customize or adapt the schedule. And like Carrie, above, I want to know more about the crockpot meals your boys will eat;-) Thanks!

I love the fact that within your structured day, you still have a lot of unstructured play time. I like the idea of having Friday as a “social”, different day, but I wonder how that plays in accomplishing the whole curriculum, is it hard to fit it all in in 4 days? I go between worrying that we are spending too much time in the classroom to worrying that the kids will not get everything they need to get.

I’ve so enjoyed reading about your homeschooling methods. We don’t homeschool but I would have loved to had I even thought about it when our daughter was little. I particularly like the way you have a mix of structured and easier time and that free time – so important for us all! Good luck with the new plan. Bx

Thanks so much for sharing! This sounds so fun! As I was reading it I was dreaming of how it will be someday with my kids when they are school-age. I love the little rituals you guys have (pledge, hot lunch, etc.) and it seems like they are an important part of their day, why shouldn’t they have some of that “school stuff” just because they are home? 🙂 Too cute! I also love that you take Fridays “off” my husband will be a priest in a few years and his day off will be Fridays, so it’s nice to be reminded we can be flexible with our schedule and celebrate the week’s work together. Thanks again!

I just love it that after all of the stress of researching and agonizing you and jessica (from seedpod) have both landed on the same thing I did. It’s reassuring somehow!

We’re doing Core 1 with Singapore Math (hmmm) and Handwriting Without Tears (they hated it, so now we’re trying Getty-Dubay). I have an early reader and a reluctant one so we’re using the beginning readers.

That huge binder was oh so intimidating but I’m familiar with it enough now. I like jessica’s “scaffolding” remark. That’s perfect.

I’m also laughing over the bell and pledge and lunch trays! We do all of that too, my goodness the kids love it. There must be something to say for routine and rituals ;o)

I have really enjoyed your homeschooling posts -thanks! We are just starting out this year and taking things pretty easy (it is only kindergarten) as we figure out our own balance and structure. It can be so overwhelming at times but man, so worth it. It sounds like we have very similar views and goals in our schooling so I really look forward to hearing more about your adventure…and gleaning your wisdom and ideas!! Again, thanks for sharing.

Thanks so much for sharing your days. Good food for thought. I was just talking with my daughter today about how we need to work on developing some aspects of her project work that she can do on her own… mainly so I can get some things done and also so I can spend some time with little brother!
You have given me some very good ideas!
Thanks!

Thank you for sharing this part of your home and family. It’s obviously appreciated by so many of us and I’m very grateful you took the time to get it all out there for anyone who’s interested. I really enjoyed your installments 😉

I love, love, love your new schedule. It is so nice to see how others are doing this. Mine are only 5, 3 and 1, so I am in the infancy stages, but I like to gather ideas. RIght now I feel like things are pertty helter skelter, but I am trying, even now, to create some kind of “school” routine with my boys (2 oldest) They like it. You’ve given me some good ideas.
ALso, could you share your blue grass hymns? I would LOVE to get some of that going in my house!